Ehi Braimah, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Naija Times, said during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision not to attend the 81st United Nations General Assembly had been inadequately explained to the Nigerian public.
Braimah accepted that Vice-President Kashim Shettima was competent to deliver Nigeria’s national statement.
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Braimah maintained, however, that personal attendance still carries diplomatic weight for a country that presents itself as a leading African voice and periodically argues for a stronger place in global institutions.
“Diplomacy is about optics, about perception and engagement,” Braimah said.
The high-level general debate opened on 22 September and runs until 28 September. Tinubu left Abuja on 30 August for a working vacation that began in London and continued in Paris, where Tinubu met French President Emmanuel Macron.
On Monday, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga said the visit had been extended by a few days and that Tinubu would return at the weekend, remaining in charge of government.
Shettima left Nigeria on 20 September to lead the delegation. Secretary to the Government of the Federation George Akume was assigned other official duties.
The arrangement makes the Tinubu UNGA absence the third in succession. Tinubu attended in 2023. Shettima represented Nigeria in 2024 and 2025. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has questioned the pattern.
The Presidency has dismissed those remarks as irresponsible. Permanent Representative Jimoh Ibrahim has said Tinubu faces no restriction on transit to the United Nations headquarters district and that many governments send vice-presidents or foreign ministers to the debate.
Braimah directed his criticism at the quality of official communication. “I am sorry to say that communication has not been very effective,” Braimah said. “If the president is not going to be at UNGA, we should be told why, and the heavens will not fall.” Braimah argued that a brief statement extending a working vacation by “a few more days” invited speculation in an election season and failed the test of clear public accounting.
A parallel dispute has arisen under Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution. The provision requires the president, when proceeding on vacation or otherwise unable to discharge the functions of office, to send a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The vice-president then acts as president. If no declaration is transmitted within 21 days, each House may, by simple majority, mandate the vice-president to act until the president writes that he is ready to resume.
Tinubu’s departure on 30 August placed the 21st day at about 20 September, the day Shettima left for New York. No widely published declaration has been produced.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, newly returned from Rome, has said he is not Acting President and that the presidency is not vacant.
Opposition figures including Omoyele Sowore have urged the National Assembly to apply Section 145(2). Braimah said the clause is a trigger for legislators, not an automatic change of office, and that an Assembly close to the executive is unlikely to pass such a resolution while it is not sitting.
Braimah added that both the Presidency and the legislature could still have offered a fuller public explanation. Former Senate President Pius Anyim has said the decision to send Shettima should not be treated as a crisis.
The same interview turned to the deaths of 37 people held by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Minna after raids on suspected illegal mining sites around the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto axis on 15 and 16 September. The bodies were found on 17 September. T
he NSCDC first referred to a suspected disease outbreak. Survivors later told Reuters they had been confined in a severely overcrowded cell. Unrest followed in the state capital and a curfew was imposed. The state commandant and other officers were suspended. Twenty-four personnel have been taken into custody for questioning.
Tinubu ordered an investigation from abroad. Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo inaugurated a 10-member independent committee chaired by retired DSS deputy director-general Jonathan Kure, with two weeks to identify the dead and establish the cause and circumstances of death.
Braimah described the panel as a proper first step and said responsibility must follow the findings. Braimah also set the case in a wider failure of pre-trial detention.
In February, Controller-General Sylvester Nwakuche told the National Assembly that 51,955 of 80,812 inmates, or 64 per cent, were awaiting trial.
By 29 June the Correctional Service recorded 82,195 inmates, of whom 53,670, or 65 per cent, were still unconvicted.
Braimah distinguished labourers at the pits from those who finance illegal mining in gold-producing states. Enforcement that fills cells without identifying owners and sponsors, Braimah said, will not end the trade. Miners have already returned to the Wushishi site.
The Nigerian Bar Association has asked investigators to examine control of the operations as well as the conduct of the detention.
The political argument in Abuja and the deaths in Minna now rest on the same demand for candour. The government says the president continues to direct affairs from Europe and that Nigeria is fully represented in New York.
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Braimah’s assessment was more limited and more exacting. Public office requires a plain account of absence. It also requires that people taken into the custody of the state leave that custody alive.
David Okere is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering business, governance, public affairs, and human-interest stories with a commitment to accuracy, balance, and public interest reporting.
